PUSL.- Mohamed Yahya Elhafed Iazza, saharawi political prisoner currently detained in Bouzakarn is in a very precarious health condition with severe general deterioration and without the appropriate medical assistance.
Mr. Iazza’s health conditions have been repeatedly denounced as well as the intentional medical neglect from the prison administration.
Besides chronic asthma, he suffers from severe chronic anemia according to his family without proper medical care nor diet. However, the last contact with his family was two weeks ago. In the current situation of the pandemia and the Covid related protection measures phone calls are the only contact with the outside world since family visits are not allowed.
In his 13th year of detention Mr. Iazza has still two years of imprisonment ahead to complete a 15 year sentence.
Mohamed Yahya Elhafed Iazza
Mr. Iazza was born in 1966 in Tantan and was arrested in February 2008. He was sentenced to 15 years. Mohamed Yahya Elhafed Iazza is a human rights activist, a member of CODESA and AMDH (Moroccan Human Rights Association) in Tantan, suffers from several chronic diseases like asthma, hemorrhoids, rheumatism and anemia. The political prisoner was subjected to mistreatment and torture. In April 2014, despite his serious health problems, the administration of the prison at Ait Melloul denied him any medical assistance. In April / May 2014, he went on a 45-day hunger strike and was transferred from Ait Melloul prison to Oudaya, Marrakesh. He had already gone on a 17-day hunger strike for the same reasons and in 2008 he went on a hunger strike for more than 30 days. During the time he was in Inzegan prison he was in the isolation / punishment cell several times. In 2009 on the night of his transfer to Ait Melloul he was tortured by more than 30 guards and went on a hunger strike again.
He was kidnapped in his traditional Saharawi fabric store on 02/29/2008 for participating in a peaceful demonstration in Tantan (southern Morocco) and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
On the same day he was taken to the police headquarters in Tantan, where he was tortured for 3 days together with other young Saharawis. A group of special police officers arrived for the torture session.
For 3 days, his family was unaware of his whereabouts and his asthma medication was removed from him.
Mr. Iazza identified some torturers as Mustafa Kamour, chief of police and a policeman named Abed Jalil Elwaaziz and another named Dekir Ahmed.
He spent 3 days without food or water, without blankets on the floor.
They hung him upside down by his feet, then in the Dajaja position (like a roast chicken), beat him with sticks, threatened him and was “showered” with urine and garbage.
In Ouyada Prison (Marrakesh) I was in a 5x4m cell with bunk beds along with 26 other prisoners (common law prisoners), there was no adequate ventilation, the cell was always full of smoke and very dirty, food was scarce and there was a lack of basic nutrients , drinking water had to be purchased.
Both in Taroudant and Ait Melloul prison there were no improvements in conditions of detention.
Currently imprisoned in Bouzakarn, he continues to survive in subhuman conditions after more than 13 years in detention.
